When Xia Lei left the sanitarium, Ning Jing was still unconscious. She looked very peaceful as she slept. He really wanted to say goodbye to her but he could not bear to wake her up in the end.
He returned to the Thunder Horse Military Factory’s director’s office and took out the five drawings again. He looked at it while thinking of the words which Ning Jing had said.
“Emptiness is not the sky; there is no distance. Time is not time; thousands of years pass in an instant. The traveller came from a distant time. The sky is not his obstacle and time cannot destroy his body. He is searching for the starting point but he is lost in the dark world. He is about to lose himself. The only thing that can…”
Those words were like a curse.
Why did Ning Jing say those words? She had touched the ancient alloy and the bronze book, but she definitely had not touched the box that was pieced together with ancient alloy pieces because she had gone crazy before he had even put the box together. In reality, the number of times that he had touched the ancient alloy was also very limited. Even he had only assembled the box when he was in Japan. Then... she had not seen the ancient alloy box, so how was she able to draw it?
Xia Lei’s eyes moved to the fourth drawing that pictured the complete ancient alloy box. His eyes locked onto the piece of ancient alloy that he had not seen before.
Every piece of ancient alloy had a special design and pattern. Each pattern on each piece of ancient alloy was different from its design. You could say that each ancient alloy part was different and unique. But the piece that Ning Jing drew did not resemble any of the pieces of ancient alloys. It had its own special pattern and design. It was unique.
‘What happened? Could she have seen the full ancient alloy box? Or did someone describe it to her?’ Xia Lei’s brain was filled with a load of questions but he had no answers.
The sound of footsteps came from outside the door. Xia Lei raised his head and took a look, then packed up the five drawings.
Fan Fan soon appeared at the office door. She reached out her hand and knocked.
“Please come in!” said Xia Lei casually.
Fan Fan pushed the door open.
“What did you come here for?” asked Xia Lei casually.
“I cannot come here if I do not have anything important?” Fan Fan rolled her eyes. “Can you not be kinder to me?”
Xia Lei was speechless.
“Okay, I will stop joking with you. I came to talk about some business with you.”
“What business?”
“The Hellbound One-soldier Cannon was successful. Your work is also almost done. When do we start on the Alloy X Project?”
Xia Lei smiled bitterly. “Was I not clear enough? This kind of thing cannot be hurried. You need to give me some more time.”
“Okay, if you want it, I will give it to you.”
Xia Lei was speechless again.
“I did not come here today for this. I came for something else.”
“Can you just say everything in one go?”
“I have completed the antidote.” Fan Fan took out a glass container from the depths of her handbag. The container was filled with a seemingly sticky clear liquid.
For some reason, no matter how Xia Lei looked at it, the liquid still looked like lubricating oil to him. And because of this trait, Xia Lei immediately knew that the antidote that Fan Fan made was wrong because he had already made the correct antidote. Not only did he make the correct antidote but he also made something to inhibit the antidote, the anti-antidote.
Fan Fan moved the glass container in front Xia Lei’s eyes and waved it about. Her voice was teasing as she asked, “How about it? Try it out.”
“Um, I am busy with something. Can you…”
Fan Fan frowned. “You promised me. Are you going to break your promise?”
Xia Lei looked at the watch on his wrist and sighed. “All right, I will give you fifteen minutes.”
“Half an hour.” Fan Fan said, “I need to retrieve some samples for an antidote test.”
“All right, half an hour it is. Follow me into the lounge.” Xia Lei turned and walked towards the lounge.
Fan Fan smiled and followed Xia Lei into the room.
Half an hour later, Fan Fan walked out of the lounge.She held a new glass container carefully as she complained, “Geez, it would be so much better if you had not bombed my lab. I could have done my research here. Now I will have to go back to the Academy of Science. It’s so troublesome. Can’t you just…”
“No.” Xia Lei was very firm on that. “I will not have your research lab here. We have agreed on that before. I will allow you to retrieve my samples and that should be enough. You should feel content.”
Fan Fan glared at Xia Lei.
Xia Lei shrugged. “You came looking for me on your own, not the other way around. If you feel sorry for yourself, we can end this relationship anytime.”
“You…” Fan Fan looked as if she had suffered great injustice. Tears welled in her eyes.
Xia Lei did not feel a trace of guilt towards Fan Fan, who was about to cry, because whenever he thought of how she planned to beguile him into giving away the Thunder Horse Military Factory, and how she was someone whom the ZN Bureau had placed by his side, undercover, all the feelings of guilt would immediately disappear.
“Never mind, I will not fight with you.” Fan Fan calmed down instantly. “I need to go back to the lab. I will notify you once I have the results.”
Xia Lei smiled. “Bye, take care.”
Results? There would never be a result to this. After Fan Fan made the correct antidote, there would probably be many more tests and experiments. These all needed time. Even if she did make the correct antidote, Xia Lei had already prepared an anti-antidote to deal with her. In short, he would not let her carry his child. He needed to let her spend the majority of her energy on making the antidote so that she would not have time to intervene with what he was doing.
Fan Fan looked hard at Xia Lei, then turned and left his office.
After Fan Fan left, Xia Lei took out those five drawings and then headed to the villa.
Ever since the last time he had taken out his anger on the colonel of the Special Forces, Wu Xiaoguo, the Special Forces soldiers guarding the villa had became more courteous to Xia Lei. Before he entered the villa, the two Special Forces guards at the door not only did not ask to check what was in his hand, but also straightened up and gave him a military salute.
Xia Lei only gave them a nod, and went straight into the villa to arrive at the underground laboratory.
He cleared the workbench and placed everything on top; the compass, the bronze book, the ancient alloy box with the missing corner, and the five drawings that Ning Jing drew.
In the first drawing, the compass’s needle was pointed straight toward the sky. This was the compass’s last state. The direction it pointed toward was the last treasure location.
In the second drawing, the bronze book was closed. Nothing special as far as one could see. Xia Lei had already deciphered the bronze treasure book, so he did not pay much attention to this drawing.
In the third drawing was the ancient alloy box that was missing a corner. He compared it to the real box and found to his surprise that the three sides of the box that Ning Jing drew was exactly identical to the real one. Even the patterns were exactly the same. A drawing like this could have even been used as a picture. But Ning Jing had never seen this box before!
The fourth drawing pictured the remaining three sides of the ancient alloy box. They were also exactly identical to the real ancient alloy box’s other three sides. There was not a single mistake in the pattern and design, including that piece he had not seen yet. Obviously, this was not a coincidence. She had done this deliberately.
The male in the fifth drawing was naked. His body was very fit, strong, and proportional, but he did not have a face. On the bottom right corner was the name “Xia Lei”, but Xia Lei was sure that the person in the drawing was not him.
Xia Lei looked through everything again and again. At the same time, he also tried all sorts of ways to look for clues in these mute objects. Unfortunately, he still did not find anything in the end. His thoughts drifted back to the words which Ning Jing had said.
“Emptiness is not the sky; there is no distance. Time is not time; thousands of years pass in an instant. The traveller came from a distant time. The sky is not his obstacle and time cannot destroy his body. He is searching for the starting point but he is lost in the dark world. He is about to lose himself. The only thing that can…”
A bulb suddenly lit up in Xia Lei’s head. Before, his thoughts had been all murky like swamp water. After that, his thoughts had clear direction, and the swamp water turned into clear water.
Xia Lei’s line of sight slowly moved to the top of the ancient alloy box and his eyes stopped on that gap.